2016 has been another year of success for the OECD's tax
chief Pascal Saint-Amans, who has continued to work for global
tax cooperation through the BEPS project. Although the past
year has been less hectic than 2015, when the BEPS project was
released, Saint-Amans has still retained his place as one of
the most influential people in tax – a place he has
held since he became director in 2012.

Saint-Amans told International Tax Review that his
proudest moment of the year was at the G20 summit in
Hangzhou, China. "I heard nine leaders in the room pronounce
the world 'BEPS'. And, you know, when you make all of this up
from nothing, to then have leaders from Obama to the French
president say the word 'BEPS' is a matter of pride," he
said.

Transparency has been the key word in the world of tax
during the past year, and the BEPS project has moved from
setting a standard to the drafting of legislation and
implementation.

"It was a collective effort, and we have done all of this
while keeping the excitement for the whole team," Saint-Amans
said. Since the project was released in October 2015,
Saint-Amans's team has worked on providing detailed guidance on
country-by-country reporting (CbCR), helping countries write
legislation and ensuring the successful transition from
releasing the project to implementing it.

Separately, the European Commission's state aid rulings were
a big topic in 2016, and they generated "possible friction"
between the Commission and the OECD.

"I think the Commission has the power to cover tax in state
investigations, and those who say this isn't possible are just
blatantly wrong," Saint-Amans said. "We cannot have people
inventing transfer pricing rules when we've been negotiating
them for years, although this isn't what the Commission is
trying to do. But it may be the case that what they've done so
far isn't fully aligned with what we do, and it shouldn't
undermine, nor impact, the way we tackle these issues," he
added.

Another big achievement for Saint-Amans' team was the
establishment of the inclusive framework, which brings together
more than 100 countries and jurisdictions to collaborate on the
implementation of BEPS. "This is a real game changer for the
long term, because it's opening up the decision-making body of
the OECD to the whole world. This is the start of something
new," he said.

In 2017, Saint-Amans has a busy agenda and many challenges
lay ahead for the OECD's top tax man. "2017 will be a very
important year in terms of BEPS implementation, especially
CbCR. We will have the multilateral instrument signed, which
will be very important. The start of the peer reviews on
harmful tax practices, the second round of reviews at the
global forum, and the start of the automatic exchange of
information, together with the delivery of the tax certainty
instrument. That's a lot, you know. Those are the big building
blocks for next year."